Seminar on the History of Chicago School Reform
Date/time: January 19, 2009 (Martin Luther King, Jr. Day); 9:30 am, registration;
10 am – 2:00 pm, program
Location: University of Illinois Chicago Forum, 725 W. Roosevelt (at Halsted)
Audience: 200 community organizers, GYO candidates, parents, LSC members, students, and others
Format: Interactive; Personal stories; Variety of viewpoints
Outcome: Action-orientation
Guiding questions: What can we learn from Chicago school reform that is important to our
work today? What worked? What did we do wrong? What did the school reform law allow to
happen? How can this history inform our work going forward?
AGENDA Draft 6
10 am Welcome, purpose of the meeting
Dr. Charles Payne, Professor, University of Chicago
School reform today, what we want from this meeting:
VOYCE, GYO, PRISE
10:15 am Ice-breaker: Significance of Martin Luther King day; civil rights movement and education. 15 minutes
10:30 am
I. Overview of Chicago school reform Linda Lenz, Publisher, Catalyst 20 min
• Political context and process; What did the reformers want and why?
• Most important elements of the law (e.g.Chap. 1; principal powers; LSCs)
• Who supported and who did not? Why? Ramifications today
• What was the thinking behind LSCs?
• Governance and/vs instructional improvement
• Changes in the principals and in the roles of the principal
• Implementation by the reform community
• Lessons that are important to our work now
II. LSCs Jitu Brown, Education Organizer, Kenwood Oakland Community Organization 20 minutes
• What have been the LSC successes? the challenges?
• What roles have LSCs had; should LSCs have had?
• Relationship to civil rights and Black Power movement
Questions and Answers 10 minutes
11:20 am Panel: Chicago School Reform Leaders
Dr. Sokoni Karanja, Executive Director, Centers for New Horizons
Dr. Donald Moore, Executive Director, Designs for Change
Peter Martinez, Director, Center for School Leadership,
University of Illinois Chicago
Dr. Charles Payne, moderator
Don: the key concepts in legislation (Madigan’s “lock-up”)
Sokoni: political contexts within the African American community
Peter: school reform and the Latino community’s “coming of age”
12 noon Questions & Answers Moderated discussion of presentations at tables; Questions to presenters
12:25 pm Bridge session: key lessons learned; our work today
Anne Hallett, Director, Grow Your Own Illinois
12:30 Lunch Table discussions, moderated by reps from GYO, VOYCE, PRISE
each with a note taker
What did we learn this morning?
What are we working on now?
What are 3 key lessons from this morning that we will take to our work going forward?
1:30 – 1:45 2-4 short reports: what we learned today (candidates, students, parents)
1:45 – 2:00 Summarize and next steps
Patricia Watkins, Executive Director, TARGET Area Development Corp
Charles Payne, University of Chicago
Seminar on the History of Chicago School Reform
Date/time: January 19, 2009 (Martin Luther King, Jr. Day); 9:30 am, registration;
10 am – 2:00 pm, program
Location: University of Illinois Chicago Forum, 725 W. Roosevelt (at Halsted)
Audience: 200 community organizers, GYO candidates, parents, LSC members, students, and others
Format: Interactive; Personal stories; Variety of viewpoints
Outcome: Action-orientation
Guiding questions: What can we learn from Chicago school reform that is important to our
work today? What worked? What did we do wrong? What did the school reform law allow to
happen? How can this history inform our work going forward?
AGENDA Draft 6
10 am Welcome, purpose of the meeting
Dr. Charles Payne, Professor, University of Chicago
School reform today, what we want from this meeting:
VOYCE, GYO, PRISE
10:15 am Ice-breaker: Significance of Martin Luther King day; civil rights movement and education. 15 minutes
10:30 am
I. Overview of Chicago school reform Linda Lenz, Publisher, Catalyst 20 min
• Political context and process; What did the reformers want and why?
• Most important elements of the law (e.g.Chap. 1; principal powers; LSCs)
• Who supported and who did not? Why? Ramifications today
• What was the thinking behind LSCs?
• Governance and/vs instructional improvement
• Changes in the principals and in the roles of the principal
• Implementation by the reform community
• Lessons that are important to our work now
II. LSCs Jitu Brown, Education Organizer, Kenwood Oakland Community Organization 20 minutes
• What have been the LSC successes? the challenges?
• What roles have LSCs had; should LSCs have had?
• Relationship to civil rights and Black Power movement
Questions and Answers 10 minutes
11:20 am Panel: Chicago School Reform Leaders
Dr. Sokoni Karanja, Executive Director, Centers for New Horizons
Dr. Donald Moore, Executive Director, Designs for Change
Peter Martinez, Director, Center for School Leadership,
University of Illinois Chicago
Dr. Charles Payne, moderator
Don: the key concepts in legislation (Madigan’s “lock-up”)
Sokoni: political contexts within the African American community
Peter: school reform and the Latino community’s “coming of age”
12 noon Questions & Answers Moderated discussion of presentations at tables; Questions to presenters
12:25 pm Bridge session: key lessons learned; our work today
Anne Hallett, Director, Grow Your Own Illinois
12:30 Lunch Table discussions, moderated by reps from GYO, VOYCE, PRISE
each with a note taker
What did we learn this morning?
What are we working on now?
What are 3 key lessons from this morning that we will take to our work going forward?
1:30 – 1:45 2-4 short reports: what we learned today (candidates, students, parents)
1:45 – 2:00 Summarize and next steps
Patricia Watkins, Executive Director, TARGET Area Development Corp
Charles Payne, University of Chicago
2:00 pm Adjourn